THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

TALES OF AN ANCIENT MARINER

The evolving of a sustainable world

Revised August 9, 2005

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AH SWEET MYSTERY OF LIFE

Considering the chronological age of the Ancient Mariner(80+) he realizes that, at long last, he must cope with the need for a dogma that satisfies his desire to sing “Ah sweet mystery of Life at last I found you”. There are, in his view, three acceptable frameworks for this rationalization. All begin with a dogma about the origin of the Universe. One starts with the belief that the Universe is created from nothing by some sort of “big bang” that produces a gigantic mass of chaotic matter and antimatter. We can posit, more specifically, the existence of a Universe initially composed entirely of hot chaotic photons and neutrinos . All we now need is a logical mechanism through in which chaos creates order. This we find in Markovian statistics which at one and the same time produces Markow regions and an electromagnetic radiation at a frequency (approx 160 Gigaherz). Scientific framework folk believe this frequency is a measure of the Temperature (i.e a measure of the chaos) of the Universe. One can postulate a mechanism for the evolution of inanimate things into living things in which every “living thing” is identified by the existence of a DNA molecule as its road map for procreation. We will call this a Darwinian frame of reference.

Enter human mammals who believe (incorrectly) that they have an ability to manipulate symbols with a one to one correspondence with symbols designed to describe living creatures. This reinforces a belief that they have the ability to predict the future of evolution and to modify or reinforce this pattern with self fulfilling prophecy. We will call this frame work Social Darwinism.

The poet Dryden has intuited this framework in his poem A Song for Saint Cecelia’s Day

From harmony, from heavenly harmony
This Universal frame began
When Nature underneath a heap
of jarring atoms lay
and could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high
"Arise ye more than dead"
Then cold, and hot, and moist and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And Music’s power obey
:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran
The diapason closing full in man

A second framework postulates some sort of omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent God or God’s who looks with favor on a tribe or tribes who are dedicated to the notion that their God has a will and that his will can establish a perpetuating Kingdom on Earth which has The Power and The Glory for ever and ever AMEN. The history and perspective of most any one of these long lasting tribes forms a framework for satisfying the yearning for, and an understanding of, “the sweet Mystery of Life. This writer, steeped as he is, in the Judeo Christian history that begins with Genesis and the creation of Adam and the creation of a replicating clone called Eve as mother and father of all creation, has been exposed to this mystery . He understands it as a framework for history but also as one framework for the prediction of the role of self-fulfilling religious prophecy in the world of the twenty first century AD.

One of the most satisfying prophecies for true believers are the alleged words Of Jesus (who spoke in the poetic (iambic pentameter) language of King James)

Let not your heart be troubled:
Ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my fathers house are many mansions:
If it were not so I would have told you
I go to prepare a place for you
I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am. There ye may be also.

The third framework postulates a world in which humans believe there is no good and no evil, that we are beyond freedom and dignity and that news reports and analysis by the media are nothing but “tales told by an idiot, full of Sound and Fury, signifying nothing. We will call this framework the Sound and the Fury.

Shakespeare has reduced this description to iambic pentameter

Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Why then should the Ancient Mariner bother with this intellectual history which self reflexively modifies history? In order to survive he must appear to have adopted one of the three dogmas so that the world can predict his behavior. The intelligence agencies are fearful that he will inadvertently or deliberately release classified information. They are terrified that he may adopt existentialism, they are equally concerned that he might go on a Presbyterain crusade to recapture the Holy Land. In his youth he made a decision which he now regrets and was ordained as an elder in the Presbyterian Church. Once an elder always an elder in the immortal eyes of John Calvin. The media has created a flamboyant Dr. Strangelove image of the Ancient Mariner and they are continuously on the lookout for new sensational stories. Thus the Ancient Mariner must proclaim a dogma. (i.e. a belief in facts that cannot be ascertained) if he is to survive with relevance in Society in which he is immersed. What if his ‘sheeps clothing’ dogma is wrong and the world discovers it while he still has years to live. His rationalization is saved by the advice of Saul/Paul of the New Testament.

He says (in the language of King James)

When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child
But when I became an adult I put away childish things
For now we see through a glass, darkly
For now we know in part and we prophecy in part
And we know whether there be prophecies they shall fail
Whether there be tongues they shall cease
Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away
Thus we can expect our dogmas to fail and until they do there is only hope that they will not. So, to survive, we must proceed with dogma and hope until both fail. What is left? Saul/Paul describes an operational behavioral pattern called love. It has the following operational characteristics
it suffers long and is kind
it does not envy, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own
Rejoices not in violence
It bears all things
It believes all things
It hopes all things
Because I have found at least one philosopher who has enunciated an overall framework that copes with all of my incompatible paradoxical frameworks and provides a working strategy for a long Bittersweet life does not mean that I can sing “Ah sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found you” I will not know until the end, whether my life is a memory without pain. This philosophy is summarized in The Ancient Mariner’s poetic rendition of the last lines of Oedipus Rex

  
At that final day
With life’s last milestone passing
Count no one happy
Unless they find life, at death
A memory without pain. 

So now, August 9, 2005, I lay me down to sleep

I pray all Gods my Soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

I should not complain

But I would !!





 
  

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